Whistleblower's

My mom used to keep a list of sayings that she hated and although i don't have a list that i have written down and actually look at like she did i do have some idiom's that really rub me the wrong way.

“The Real America” does that mean Yosemite, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, Statue of Liberty, the Heartland, Golden Gate Bridge what...what is the real America and is there any such thing?

“Real Americans” must mean Native Americans...right... or does it mean God fearing conservative Christians who love the baby Jesus...it couldn't mean all of us could it?

“The Liberal Media” what the hell does that mean...if it really was the liberal media we wouldn't be in Afghanistan, Guantanamo would be closed, Bradley Manning would have his sentence reduced to time served, Snowden would be here in the US fighting his case in the open, and the nations infrastructure would be tended to.

“Are you a Patriot” it used to be someone who loves their country and supports it but wouldn't follow blindly along supporting whatever the government gets itself into. “Today its someone who blindly follows and lacks the ability to think for him or herself.” Urban Dictionary

Just had to get those off my chest.

i'm just wondering if anyone here is familiar with the first whistle blower law that was passed July 30,1778?

" It is the duty of all persons in the service of the
United States, as well as all other the inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds or misdemeanors committed by an officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge."

Bradley Manning tried alerting his superiors but was told to shut up so he went to the press.

Chuck Grassley a Republican senator and Carl Levin a Democrat yesterday proposed a "National Whistle Blower Appreciation Day" on the same day the original was passed.

Kohn the executive director of the Whistleblower's Center had this to say about it.

“The Senate Resolution calls attention to the fact that our nation’s Founding Fathers strongly supported whistleblowing, even in time of war, and even when the whistleblower allegations threatened to embarrass high-ranking officials. The action of our Founding Fathers sets a benchmark for evaluating how our current leaders treat whistleblowers,” 

Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden have exposed and embarrassed the US government with the wrong doing they have revealed to the nations citizens and the world.

So how does the government deal with this embarrassment? Instead of jailing Manning the government should stop being afraid of the citizenry. The revelations were necessary to check government over reach. Government should learn and correct the mistakes that were made in the past. They should question why we haven't lived up to our principles? The embarrassment is over as far as Manning is concerned but it doesn't mean that the government can't learn from this. We can always improve.

For Manning i think he should get off with time served. He probably saved people's lives around the world with his revelations.

For Snowden the government in all branches are going to have to do some real soul searching. The population is not happy with the intrusive surveillance.

If they do incarcerate Manning for a lengthy term then President Obama should commute his sentence and that's just my opinion.

See ya next week.